Thanks all, just to wrap things up…
LITOTES is just an anagram of TS ELIOT which I’m sure you all deduced (and preferable to TOILETS!). Here are the ‘unscrambled’ clues and their solutions which reveal R H A P S O D Y …
1. Recall May vacation touring capital of Italy in
Retirement (6) Memory
M[a]Y around ROME (rev)
2. Crazy chap -
He’s writhing with rage when anagrammed! (6) Madman
Compound anagram
3. Crane’s-bill measuring takes
Arrangement (8) Geranium
(measuring - s)*
As some of you pointed out this could also be solved as GERANIUMS. I hadn’t spotted that it appears in plural form later in the work - careless on my part!
4. Space between two
Pages of shoddy journalism? (6) Gutter
DD the second referring to the ‘gutter press’
5. Tramp’s telecast
Shows the way (10) Streetlamp, or as it appears in the work, Street lamp (6,4)
(tramps tele)*
6. Dead
Odd hearing aid (4) Drum
D + RUM
7. Another thing after turning
Dark at this time (8) Midnight
(thing)* after DIM (rev)
8.
Yatagan perhaps finally twisted
here! (5) Knife
DBE and a reference to the last line of the work…
”The last twist of the knife.”
Wikipedia describes the yatagan as a “knife or short sabre”, Chambers calls it a “sword or long dagger”.
Here is the full work (it’s always been a favourite of mine)
https://tinyurl.com/jaylitotes
Thanks for playing,
Ttfn!